Separation processes are commonly used to isolate components of multi-component liquids in a variety of technology areas. For example, in mining operations, separation processes may be used to separate multi-component liquids into components, e.g., slurries of ore into solid and liquid components. Separation processes are also common in medicine. Blood components are often separated from whole blood for transfusion or therapeutic purposes. Apheresis is one example of a blood separation process in which components are separated from whole blood.
In some separation processes, the purity of the components being separated from a multi-component liquid may be important. For example, some apheresis processes are performed to collect a particular target component from blood, e.g., mononuclear cells, for therapeutic reasons. In these separation processes it may be important to collect as much of the target component as possible with as little of the other components as possible. Providing mechanisms in the separation process to control the purity of a target component being collected may be useful.
Embodiments of the present invention have been made in light of these and other considerations. However, the problems discussed above do not limit the applicability of the embodiments of the present invention to other applications.